Plan to curb power supply to defaulters in Bihar

To minimize revenue loss in power sector, Bihar government has further tightened noose over the defaulter consumers. In case of habitual defaulters, the penalty would be through curtailment of power supply to the particular locality. The supply curtailment would be for nearly 8-10 hours per day.Pranav Chaudhary | TNN | July 23, 2016, 07:34 IST

Nitish KumarPatna | July 22: To minimize revenue loss in power sector, Bihar government has further tightened noose over the defaulter consumers. In case of habitual defaulters, the penalty would be through curtailment of power supply to the particular locality. The supply curtailment would be for nearly 8-10 hours per day.

In order to achieve the target of revenue collection, if any locality/region has less than 50% target collection, those areas will be identified as defaulters. The chief secretary expressed displeasure over the tardy progress in revenue collection in districts. At the block level, the respective BDOs would be held responsible for tardy collection, Singh said and added action would be taken against such erring officials.

Currently, the government is working in a mission mode for achieving the target of providing electricity to every household by the year 2020. “In the last few years, we have made rapid progress with a vision of providing 24X7 power for all. There has been a significant jump in the state budget allocation (for the purpose) in the last three years, said an official.

The energy sector in Bihar is currently undergoing a sea change. The power sector in Bihar is growing at a fast rate to achieve the national level of per capita consumption, said an official. Spot billing centres are being opened at 67 places for the convenience of power consumers. Installation of meters in every household is also in progress to minimize power theft. To increase revenue in rural areas, rural franchisee system has been implemented.

An official pointed out that power tariff has not seen a major increase since 2014-15.

Bihar suffers from serious constraints in distribution infrastructure, due to which as against a peak load requirement of 3000MW, the existing system is capable of meeting load to the extent of 2300MW-2400MW only.